He's become more associated with UEFA and their corruption than his football career.
Is Platini the most underrated footballer of all time?
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
I'm French and Zidane was better than Platini. Quit the hipster shite. Platini himself gets mad when people say he was a midfielder because in his opinion he was always a forward and couldn't picture football without scoring goals
Pogba and Kanté are nowhere near that kind of top 5.
I'm french and old enough to have seen Platini play. I had my first huge football emotions during the 84 european championship. And I don't feel like I have to choose between Zidane or Platini, very different players, different times.
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If you wanted a matchwinner, you'd choose Zidane.
If you wanted a player who can elevate the whole team, you'd go Platini.
And if I had to choose one of them to build a team around, it'd be Platini ten times out of ten.
As to OP I'd say Zico is far more underrated.
If you wanted a player who can elevate the whole team, you'd go Platini.
And if I had to choose one of them to build a team around, it'd be Platini ten times out of ten.
As to OP I'd say Zico is far more underrated.
I thought he was a brilliant player and is definitely in that group of players that are just below Messi and Diego in my humble opinion.
Marco Van Basten was another personal favourite of mine, I just thought he was the complete centre forward and it was a shame his career was cut short so early.
Marco Van Basten was another personal favourite of mine, I just thought he was the complete centre forward and it was a shame his career was cut short so early.
In terms of underrated players, what do you think about Marius Trésor and Tigana? They seem to be often forgotten.Yep! And thankfully, he's rated appropriately by most credible ranking systems/agencies as well (need updating with Messi, Cristiano, Fenómeno but fairly robust aside from that barring one of two peculiar choices because of journalistic favoritism/biases)...
How would one even quantify a vague term like “talent”, though? Mind, talent is only half of it because application and execution count for a lot. Platini was for sure the better passer wrt. range and internal timing (in fact he is up there with the likes of Xavi and Cruyff when we consider the greatest and most intelligent passers of the ball), a considerably better scorer even though he played a big part in midfield and was a more calculating defensive presence than Zidane, magnificent on set pieces (surpassed by only Zico from the era), more consistent with his interpretation of space and movement from match to match. Zidane was a better technical dribbler because that wasn't Platini's forte, had marginally tighter close control (particularly when travelling with the ball), more supple — but those qualities don't make him an inherently better talent unless you place a premium on certain aspects/traits (especially those that are appealing on the eye and make the player seem more aesthetically pleasing) and downgrade the others. Even Kaká would become a better talent if we pick and choose certain parameters, and prioritizing specific aspects is unfair on players like Platini, Baresi, Müller, Xavi (who set extraordinary standards of performance for their positions but are penalized in the talent categories).
Really like both of them, as well as Amoros, Giresse and Bossis — and yeah, a lot of the French players from that generation are much more obscure/underrated than their counterparts from the late '90s to mid 2000s teams. We had a positional poll recently in the Draft sub-forum (results are collated and published by @harms) and both of them were placed quite highly in their respective categories...Trésor in the vicinity of Koeman, Hierro, Vasović even though he didn't play for a mega club like them (wasn't he close to joining Bayern at one point?), and from a quick glance at voting patterns, Tigana should be right at the cusp of the Top 10 for box-to-box and defensive midfielders. I do wonder if there's a slight anti-French and anti-West German narrative through the '70s and '80s because players like Netzer, Bonhof, Heynckes are also quite underrated (even though they starred for the wonderful Mönchengladbach team of the period and played varying roles in the EURO '72 and '74 World Cup triumphs), or maybe it's a natural/understandable thing as they don't get much exposure because French and German are not global languages in the context of the footballing media (in comparison with English which is near ubiquitous in terms of penetrative influence across the spectrum, and Spanish/Portuguese for South American publications).
That's a definite — such a shame that they haven't played outside of France. Tigana's Bordeaux side was brilliant though, I've been watching some of their games recently. They came close to eliminating Platini's Juventus from the European Cup in the 1985, the year they've won it — they've lost 3:0 away, but won 2:0 at home with Tigana being simply outstanding. He was so unique in terms of his playing style — a top-class ball-winning box-to-box with the technique, dribbling and passing of Iniesta (not quite at that level, of course, but visually very similar).
I've seen less of Tresor though and I've not always seen him at his best. He was one of the most athletically center backs that I've seen, but he lacked something to become an all-time great center back in my opinion.
I'd add Giresse to that list as well. Clearly the second best number 10 in France behind Platini and not quite at the level of the top 3 that dominated the decade (Zico-Platini-Maradona), but what a player he was! Almost got the Ballon d'Or in 1982 — he finished as a runner up behind the World Cup wonder Paolo Rossi.
If it were up to me, I'd perma ban you
That 84 european tournament must have been a heartbreaker, I only remember watching the VHS as I wasn't even born then but that was a disgrace the way the German did the French dirty
Phenomenal talents the both of them.
Tigana wouldn’t look out of place in any midfield combination in history (a facilitator though in the mould of an Iniesta rather than a pure game controller like a Xavi) and Tresor was on paper one of the most complete CB I’ve seen - scary physical specimen who was fast powerful yet agile and nimble with the ball. He was better than Desailly as a CB imo but was unfortunate in that he played in a side where defence was generally an afterthought despite the talent in the full back positions (Amoros and Bossis).
Pogba and Kante above Henry is correct though. Henry's only great tournament for us was Euro 2000
well he won 3 ballon d'or in 1983-1984 and 1985
So hardly underrated
So hardly underrated
Plenty of Laudrups team mates at Barca and real Madrid had him has the best they had ever played with and couldn't believe he hadn't won the ballon d'or. Cruyff also said he was unplayable when he gave 100%, but wasn't determined enough to do it regularly. I think Laudrup can easily be included in top 20 of all time
Yeah, Tigana is a strange player, I think that you could drop him in any team and it would work. For Trésor, I suppose that the fact that he was used as a sweeper but closer to modern defenders made him look awkward, to me he didn't look like the stoppers or sweepers of his time.
That entire France team (except the strikers) of the early-mid 80's, I was in love with. You are making me very nostalgic while wasting time at work, reading the caf and sipping coffee!
It had Ettori and then the amazing Joel Bats in nets.
Incredibly underrated defence consisting of Tresor, Janvion, Bossis, Battiston, Lopez and my personal favourite, Amoros.
The midfield of Platini, Giresse, Tigana, Fernandez, Genghini, Larios was magical to watch. So much fluidity and intelligent runners/passers/goal scorers.
I truly believe if they had more accomplished forwards, the 80's would have been a more glorious time for that team.
Rocheteau, Six, Soler, Lacombe and Bellone, even Stopyra were decent strikers, but there had no forwards of the caliber of 1998's Henry, Trezeguet and Dugarry.
Platini is definitely the best French player I have witnessed . And that includes Zidane, Henry and our very own King. I cannot make a judgement on Kopa or Fontaine, but scoring 13 goals in a single World Cup is no mean feat either!
Come on man, that was a great post, until you typed "Dugarry".
I think Laudrup suffered a bit in the ballon d'ors having quit the danish national team during his best years at Barcelona. Easily top20 for me too, and he could have a claim for being the best player in the world in the start 90'es.
Basically his team mates said he was the best they had ever played with and could do things in training that no one else could and included Maradona, though I dont believe Laudrup was in anyway better than Maradona. I think Michael Laudrup in terms in talent and ability is easily among the best of all time, but firstly he was unselfish, he wanted to assist rather than score like iniesta, but basically the whole laudrup family from his father to himself to his brother disliked the training and footballing culture, they hated criticism and were never like Cristiano hellbent on being the best ever. Like Cryuff said Michael Laudrup lacked the ghetto instinct, he came from a comfortable upper class background.
Laudrup was one of the best players in the World for sure around '91 - '93. On a week in week out basis too.
Stop, please.
Haha, he did have a decent eye for goal. Not WC by any means, but a good backup...
I just remember getting so frustrated with Rocheteau and Six when they would be presented with chance after chance and would somehow manage to put it 10 yards wide.
Although I still think the assault on Battiston by Schumacher and the referee's cowardice also played a huge part in 82.
It's funny, I had a hate on Michael Schumacher in F1, just on the basis of him sharing a surname with Harald!
Platini then Zidane then Henry, then you have a bunch of others you could choose from.
He did play at least one blinder against United.
Pogba, Laudrup and Kante better than Platini, now i can die in peace. He had the misfortune to share the stage with Maradona but he's absolutely one of the best ever.
He must have been taking the piss, Pogba before Platini was Justin Bieber before Elvis levels of stupid.
My point still stands if you only found one
Platini is a recognised regional and worldwide all-time great by just about everyone with an interest in football history and and even loads that don't.
I don't see how he can be considered underrated to any significant extent. Within various narrow specific scenarios, like how younger generations see him compared to Maradona etc sure but in a wider sense no.
None of the widely recognised all-time greats from the biggest football nations (the names almost everyone will have in a top 5or 10) or even a lot of the ones from countries in the next level or so down fit too well in a discussion of most underrated players of all-time imo. Maybe i'm just being too literal in my interpretation of English, but i don't think Platini should even appear in a discussion of most underrated French players. It'd be like including Shevchenko in a discussion on Ukrainians.
I don't see how he can be considered underrated to any significant extent. Within various narrow specific scenarios, like how younger generations see him compared to Maradona etc sure but in a wider sense no.
None of the widely recognised all-time greats from the biggest football nations (the names almost everyone will have in a top 5or 10) or even a lot of the ones from countries in the next level or so down fit too well in a discussion of most underrated players of all-time imo. Maybe i'm just being too literal in my interpretation of English, but i don't think Platini should even appear in a discussion of most underrated French players. It'd be like including Shevchenko in a discussion on Ukrainians.
The most? Not sure. Criminally underrated? Absolutely.
It's quite funny that, despite scoring 13 goals at that tournament, Fontaine was seen as France's second best performer. Not all of their games are available, but that's got to be some tournament by Kopa to be rated higher!
Platini , on the field was a supremely gifted and very inspirational Player , especially for his Country
I love the lists of the top 10 Footballers of all time as they are based on opinion but opinion built up over say , a players ten year or more Career
I consider Platini to be in the top 10 ever - I rated him that highly - Mind you , he is not the best French Footballer of all time - surely that honour has to go to Zidane
His first touch and control of a football in a tight and pressured situation was the best I have ever seen
I love the lists of the top 10 Footballers of all time as they are based on opinion but opinion built up over say , a players ten year or more Career
I consider Platini to be in the top 10 ever - I rated him that highly - Mind you , he is not the best French Footballer of all time - surely that honour has to go to Zidane
His first touch and control of a football in a tight and pressured situation was the best I have ever seen
With full disclosure that I didn't see a number of these players actually play - I have never heard of the likes of Laudrup or Romario being rated higher than Platini. They were both excellent players, but Platini was immense in the early-mid 80's (I was very young, and even then was still aware of his reputation as a top-drawer player.)
Especially since Laudrup was literally signed as Platini's successor and failed to do it. God knows what he would've done if he had dedication of someone like Cristiano though. I feel like the likes of Laudrup, Bergkamp (and lately, Hazard) weren't even lazy, but they just enjoyed playing football for the sake of it and didn't care that much about winning.
Platini is probably the best ever in terms of players with no pace. Used his intelligence and technique but he was probably as slow as Teddy Sheringham.
Don't see how the feck Platini is underrated.
You might see him as underrated because he played some 40 years ago. But c'mon, he's one of the all time greats.
You might see him as underrated because he played some 40 years ago. But c'mon, he's one of the all time greats.
Only Messi & C.Ronaldo have been better than him since he retired.
I guess we should close this thread and start a thread for Matthäus.
What a nightmare of a post. You can't actually be serious. Kante is better than Platini? Pogba? You have some of the worst posts on the Caf. You have to be wumming.
Are you French?
And let's be honest not many here saw Platini play... So....